On the assimilation of ASCAT winds

In contrast with scatterometer wind data, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models do not well resolve the mesoscale sea surface wind flow under increased wind variability conditions, such as in the vicinity of low-pressure centers, frontal lines, and moist convection. In this paper, several important issues are addressed in order to improve the impact of scatterometer data assimilation into global and regional NWP models, including model error structure functions, situation-dependent Observation/ Background error estimation, and improved scatterometer wind quality control.